A Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, has nullified the Taraba State Governorship Primary election that produced Senator Emmanuel Bwacha as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the March 11, 2023 election.
Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf, an aggrieved aspirant and currently a Senator representing Taraba Central, is challenging the declaration of Emmanuel Bwacha as the winner of the purported May 26 Primary, with APC and INEC as respondents.
Yusuf, through his counsel Ibrahim Bawa SAN contends amongst others:
-That there was no Primary held for the APC in Taraba on May 26.
– That the notice from the APC NWC on mode of Primaries was communicated to the aspirants and INEC days after the Primary.
-That the APC Appeal Panel set up to hear complaints said there was no Primaries held.
The seeming crisis rocking the Taraba State Chapter of the APC, over whom to fly the party’s flag had unsettled several camps of the Party. The nomination of Bwacha (Senator representing Taraba South) attracted controversy as some of the aspirants who participated in the election, alleged irregularities in the process.
Following the insecurity and non-agreement by Stakeholders’ of the Party on the mode of Primaries on May 26, a meeting was presided by the State Commissioner of Police, Abimbola Shokoya to prevent a breakdown of law and order where the Primaries was rescheduled by the Election Committee Chair, Lawrence Onuchukwu.
May 26: Announcement by the Taraba APC Election Committee Chairman, Lawrence Onuchukwu at the Police HQs, Jalingo: (https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=385521886968401&extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&ref=sharing)
May 27: At the airport the next morning, the APC Election Committee Chairman, Onuchukwu announced a winner.
(https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=554591496179040&extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&ref=sharing)
Bawa SAN also argued that the APC NWC communicated to INEC on May 25, that the Direct Primary mode will be used in conducting Primaries in Abia, Benue & Osun States (Pictured). However, the APC informed INEC of the mode of Primaries in Taraba on May 30 (Pictured), four days after the purported Primary.
Recall that on September 20, Justice Simon Amobeda of the Federal High Court in Jalingo had nullified the APC Primaries, ordering the Party to conduct another in 14 days. This was after another Aspirant, David Sabo Kente challenged the conduct of the Primaries. The Primaries has not been re-conducted as Bwacha has appealed the judgement.
The former Deputy Senate Minority Leader, Bwacha, who was elected in 2019 under the PDP defected to APC in February this year.
However, the PDP challenged his defection and the Court on November 11 sacked the lawmaker and further restrained him, his agents or privies from accessing allowances due to the occupant of the seat.